A funny thing happened when I went vegan. Before, I really was that person who could and would eat a pint of ice cream for dinner. If I couldn’t get my greedy, sugar-mad mitts on Graeter’s Chocolate Chocolate Chip, I’d make do with Haagen-Daz Chocolate or Mocha Chip. I had it bad. But then the vegan thing happened and at that time, there really were very few non-dairy ice cream options and since I’d also given up eating refined sugars, my taste for the cool, creamy stuff melted away.

Nevertheless…sometimes the only thing called for is something cold and chocolatey – without the fear of suddenly realizing you’ve reached the bottom of a pint of sugary ice cream. Enter these little bites made with cacao, white beans and other good stuff. One or two of these chocolatey mocha cuties will tame the wildest sweet tooth.

BTW, the silicon mold I used to make these is no longer available on Amazon, but this one looks close.

Set a 15 mini-muffin silicon tray on a baking sheet or other sturdy surface (such as a cutting board). Set aside.

Make the chocolate

In a small bowl, whisk together all of the chocolate ingredients - except for the nuts - and divide half of the chocolate between the muffin cups. Place the tray (that is on top of the board) into the refrigerator while you prepare the filling.

Make the filling

Combine all of the filling ingredients in a food processor and mix until silky smooth. Scrape down the sides a few times to make sure you've incorporated all of the bean and cacao bits.

When the chocolate in the freezer has hardened, remove it from the freezer and divide the filling between the cups. Tap the board/silicon mold on the counter a few times to evenly distribute the filling. Place back in the freezer and let set until hardened. It goes pretty quick - should be less than an hour.

If the remaining chocolate mixture has hardened, gently re-melt it. Stir in the chopped nuts. Remove the silicon form from the freezer and ladle on the remaining chocolate/nut mixture. Again, tap if necessary to evenly distribute the chocolate over the filling. Place back in the freezer to harden. This really goes fast since the filling itself is cold and will start to freeze up the chocolate topping.

I never had an ice cream dinner, my splurge was potato chips with ice cream along side but these look good enough to have for any meal ♥ Beans are so groovy aren’t they? I always feel a little sneaky using them in a recipe that no one would EVER believe has them in it.
Your ‘finely chopped nuts’ look like some of those tasty Oklahoma Pecans? I try to restrain using them because I eat so many straight from the jar before they make it into the recipe…..♥ I know Kel just hated having to help you eat these up 😉

These look glorious Annie! So pretty! I actually had an idea to try white beans in ice cream but was wondering if it really would work in the texture without it making it taste beany or leave that off texture, since ice cream needs to be so smooth…can you taste them at all?

These look fabulous! Need silicon mold N-O-W. Thank you to those who admit having popcorn or potato chips or ice cream for a meal. I don’t feel quite so guilty. Still making the transition to vegan but with food like this, who needs dairy?